Meet Garbiñe Muguruza, the Only Thing Standing in Serena Williams’s Way

Tomorrow afternoon, Serena Williams will take center court at Roland Garros to attempt her fourth French Open trophy—it’s called the Coupe des Mousquetaires—and her 22nd Grand Slam victory. The win would tie Williams with Steffi Graf and place her two Slams away from the all-time record. Now, the only person standing in Williams’s path is Spanish player Garbiñe Muguruza, who, in an era dominated by her much better known opponent, goes relatively under the radar despite being ranked fourth in the world.

Muguruza plays under the Spanish flag, but she was in fact born in Caracas, Venezuela, and started playing tennis at the age of 3 before starting her training in earnest outside Barcelona in 1999. She wields a thunderclap of a forehand and possesses an aggressive style that has helped her all but sail into the French Open finals over the past two weeks. At 22 years old, Muguruza is now the youngest player in the WTA’s top five. Last year, Muguruza fell to Williams, whom she has said is her favorite tennis player, in the Wimbledon finals, but a year before that, Muguruza actually handed Williams a shocking upset by bumping her out of Roland Garros in just the second round. It won’t be easy, but tomorrow Muguruza will be looking for the same chink in Williams’s armor that she found two years ago—in the match that first put her on the map.